Thai Senator ‘accidentally’ kills woman with pistol

A Thai senator accidentally shot his cousin dead as he tried to put away the 9mm sub-machine gun that he had placed on the table during a family meal, police said on Monday.

Boonsong Kowawisarat fatally injured Chanakarn Detkard, 46, when he mistakenly fired the Uzi in a private dining area of the Garden Resort, in Phrae province, northern Thailand, on Sunday evening.

Chanakarn, who worked as a secretary to the senator, suffered a bullet wound to the stomach and died on the way to hospital, according to local police, who said about five family members were at the hotel dinner.

Police said 56-year-old Boonsong, who is a lawyer and the Senator for Mae Hong Son province in the north of Thailand, will be charged with causing death by negligence. He faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and a B20,000 baht fine.

BP: Argh, the accidental shooting of someone with an Uzi after dinner problem. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Based on the picture in the Bangkok Post, the gun is a Uzi 9mm submachine gun [UPDATE: That picture is not accurate. Richard Barrow has a screenshot – which you should be able to see from here – of the gun in question from Channel 3 news. Based on feedback from his twitter users, he tweets it is a Jericho 941 pistol and which you can see from the Wikipedia page for that gun it does resemble the gun shown by Channel 3. It is made by the same manufacturer as the Uzi, but well it is a pistol and looks completely different from an Uzi. Have removed the excerpt from the Uzi manual and comments on its safety mechanisms as well as changed title of the post to remove the Uzi reference].

UPDATE: Some additional details. Below is a summary of the NationChannelarticle:

From what the police know, the deceased was sitting at the head of the table. The Senator was removing his gun from his bag, but there was a bullet stuck in the chamber (แต่ปรากฏมีกระสุนค้างในรังเพลิง 1 นัด) and the gun discharged into the stomach of the deceased (และเกิดปืนลั่นเข้าที่ท้องนางชนากาญจน์).

Matichonreports that there were 5 people at the dinner table, mainly relatives of the deceased, and before eating he took out his gun and put it on the table (นายบุญส่งได้นำปืนพบส่วนตัวดังกล่าวมาวางไว้บนโต๊). Others told him to put it away and when doing so it discharged (ซึ่งมีผู้ร่วมวงพยายามบอกให้นายบุญส่งเก็บปืน ซึ่งบนายบุญส่งทำตาม ขณะเก็บปืนนั่นเองปืนเกิดลั่น)

The mother of the Senator stated that the deceased was visiting her mother on Mother’s Day. She said her son was not completely healthy due to fall and had injured his arm and had been in a wheelchair (สุขภาพไม่สมบูรณ์เนื่องจากหกล้ม จนแขนและขาด้านซ้ายมีอาการอ่อนแรง ต้องอาศัยนั่งรถเข็น). The assistant [deceased??????] had brought the gun out of the bag and put it on the table (ผู้ติดตามได้หยิบกระเป๋าและเอาปืนออกมาวางบตโต๊ะอาหาร). The Senator said that she shouldn’t have brought the gun out to play as there was/were bullet(s) inside it (นายบุญส่ง จึงได้บอกว่าไม่ควรเอาปืนออกมาเล่นเพราะมีลูกปืนใส่ไว้อยู่) and he picked up the gun to remove the bullets/magazine, but because his arm was weak and he had no strength the gun discharged (จึงได้หยิบปืนมาเพื่อเอาลูกปืนออก แต่ด้วยความที่แขนยังมีความอ่อนล้าด้านซีกซ้าย จึงทำให้ไม่มีแรง จนทำให้ปืนลั่น)

BP: The mother’s story doesn’t match other accounts….

The Nationreports his arm was partially paralysed, but reports it was his wife who was shot (NationChannel article above does too)….

BP: This is getting confusing. All the stories make clear, there were eyewitnesses at the table (Thai Rath quotes the police as saying the mother of the deceased was present). Who put the gun on the table?